22 comments:

Fiesty Klinsi! I'm cool with it. I've always thought we were two deferential to bad calls and divers. The other thing I'd like to see, and I remember Wynalda was great at this, is to keep ratcheting up guys on the other side with a short fuse. Players like Marcelo, de Jong, Ramos, Balotelli, Rooney all play with an edge and can easily be pushed beyond it. The mental part of the game is just as important. Get inside their head and make them a liability as much as an asset.

Oohhh...yeah, well there's that. But at least it was later in the game and we were already down. (Trying to find justification, but admittedly grasping at straws.) Maybe Wylanda isn't the perfect person, but there are guys that seem to enjoy the mental games and get people to blow their tops. I think we could use a little of that.

I think there is a FINE line between sending a message and hurting someone on purpose. Sort of like in tackle football when a good hit makes a wr and/or rb think twice about going into a certain area as opposed to the type of hits the NO Saints were using to try and take players out of the game.

On the other hand, look at what happen to us when we played The Netherlands in the run-up to the last WC. DeJong takes out Holden and our players did nothing. We needed someone like Jones out there to send a message to DeJong after that. But instead, our guys did nothing and we have not had Holden back since that time.

Maybe JK is talking about the "nasty" kind of play that knocked Brazil out of the 2010 WC. The Netherlands had 4 yellow cards in that game (incl one for DeJong), and later Brazil went down to 10 men when Melo got a straight red. I can't remember why he got the red, but it may have been due to his response from "nasty" tactics that roughed up his side for most of the match.

Jacob - Deuce is a solid example.Steve Davis put it best is saying that Klinsi is looking for players to "meet gamesmanship, bite and aggression with gamesmanship, bite and aggression." I don't want a hockey-like enforcer, which sometimes Jones takes on, but less deference to the opposing side and bad calls.

Ok one more crack at it using the NFL as an example. NFL team "A" would not play the Ravens the same way the would play a Peyton-led Colt team. The Ravens are "nasty" (not dirty) and a team must push back hard against them or get run over. Now I'm done lol...

I think Klinsi meant not to have too much respect esp a team as talented as the Olympic Brazil team. We did and we pay dearly. If you frustrate Brazil, you have chance and esp. when you are not as talented. That's what the 90s generation of US had when they beat the same and even better Brazil squad of Romario in the Gold Cup. Grit and toughness. I didn't see that yesterday.

a lot of people forget that the first ever game in MLS history was played between san jose, whatever their nickname was then, and dc united. san jose won the game 1-nil and the game winner was hit by eric whinealda, but the first MLS cup was lifted by, john harkes and dc united.

id reference bob marley again, but it would not be so fresh two times in three days. i might start throwing bounty killer quotes out there if you guys dont watch out

jacob, thank you for providing the context. your video is helpful and clearly shows the official awarding a free kick to schalke. in fact jermaine jones is about to take the free kick when reus swoops in and picks up the ball. this is after the official has awarded schalke the kick.

a little subtext would be helpful here and that is the fact that BMG was winning this game 3-1, thanks to a couple of goals from the guy with the sore foot.

reus is clearly time waisting, that can not be debateable, or can it? whats jones suppose to do, say excuse me marcos, but the ref made the call, so would you please give me the ball back.

so jones goes after the ball and as he runs around reus backside, he is shoulder to shoulder with reus and the other schalke player is also vying for the ball, which is finally released by reus.

when they show the replay in slow motion, it sure looks like as jermaine brings his foot down on reus, at this moment, german tv slows the replay down even further.

when you watch it at full speed, it is almost as if jermaine is going for the ball, reus gives him a shoulder and jones brings his foot down on reus, just as if he is trying to keep his balance. anyone can believe it was intentionally, but some pretty smart people might also feel that jermaine was not showing malice.

besides this, number seven for schalke also brings his feet down on reus as he too is going for the ball.

and the last bit of back story. reus is borussa dortmond, which only happen to be schalkes biggest rival

Who is NSC?

NSC is run by Greg Seltzer (MLSsoccer.com), who has reported on soccer across the globe since 2001, covering MLS, U.S. Men, Women & Youth national teams, World Cup, Gold Cup, U-20 World Cup, the UEFA European Championship, UEFA Champions League and Europa League, UEFA Cup, CONCACAF and UEFA qualifiers, Premiership, Bundesliga, Eredivisie, various second-tier leagues, domestic cups and international friendlies.